Thursday, May 5, 2016

Containment, Season 1, Episode 3: Be Angry At The Sun

This week brings some knotty political issues as more and
more people get agitated over the cordon. Tensions are high and the new
container wall around it and the indefinite extension of the cordon.

On a personal level, Jenna opens a rift with her fellow
co-workers when she insists on a quarantine when the two guys go to get food –
and they then act like petulant man-childs.

In the hospital Kate, the words worse child minder, loses
track of one of those children (there are four. Four she needs to watch. Four.
Kate you are terrible at your job), possibly gets said child infected and then
his angry, gun toting father take the child out of the hospital using said gun.
No-one died because Bertie is much calmer and more sensible and excellent at
defusing tension.

But this also shows another major problem hitting the
cordon. There are only 11 cops for the 4000 people behind the cordon and law
and order is beginning to fray. Teresa’s mother’s shop is nearly robbed by men for
supplies after she starts profiteering (she appears to have a monopoly).

Alex desperately asks Sabine to let him send in more
police to try and bring some level of order (though who is going to volunteer
for this remains to be seen) but she is insistent that absolutely no-one can
possibly. She also thinks controlling the media and making sure everyone
co-operates will solve all the problems (uh… that’s why Alex wants more cops,
to ensure… “co-operation”. That’s traditionally what cops are for).

Alex decides to set Jake up to be his point man behind
the cordon. Which seems like a bad idea since he has no rank but it also seems
that he’s not exactly working with the cream of the crop here. Between this and
the fact he’s on body disposal duty and this show seems determined to break
Jake. I mean, I was less than sympathetic to him in previous episodes with his
little break down but, c’mon show cut the guy some slack! It’s also nice to see
someone who is, in so many ways, a classic
alpha-male-this-should-be-the-hero-guy basically saying “me?! But I’m not a
leader!”

What is bringing this to a height is independent
journalist, Leo Green who is posting footage to the net about how bad
everything is in the cordon and how the government is totally trying to cover
everything up. As an aside here – the terribad pictures of bodies and horror he’s
getting from his contacts in the cordon don’t seem to match what we’re actually
seeing from the people in the cordon?

I also wonder at the general media mismanagement here…
there’s a general incompetent “everything is fine!” message which is blatantly
not true rather than a starker, but more honest “no, shit isn’t fine. We’re
doing our utmost to stop it being worse and make it better. Here’s how, here’s
what we need” which would likely be more effective.

Sabine is desperate to control the message and keep everyone calm and pretend
the big wall of containers is a big modern art installation or something and
alternate between telling Alex “no more cops!” and “control the internet!”
Unsurprisingly, Alex fails to control the internet. Especially since Leo takes
the next step from being a blogger journalist after the truth but with a little
less nuanced take on the situation to out right ridiculousness – by
broadcasting a way around the cordon

This causes an armed confrontation at the weak point and
a man, ignoring many warnings, is shot. Shot by a cop inside the cordon who
feared the disease getting out and infecting his family. Tensions ratcheted up
to the max

This also touches on another ongoing fear – someone sweating,
someone sneezing, anyone looking even slightly ill is now a source of immense
fear and paranoia.

This could lead to a lot of debate about freedom of the
press, reasonable limits and generally what consitutes shouting “fire” in a
crowded theatre. Showing a way past the cordon? Probably counts. Showing
slanted or exaggerated depictions of chaos in the cordon? Or even reasonable
depictions of the cordon? It’s a knotty question – what level of media control
is necessary? This could be interesting to explore

So Sabine just shuts down all mobile phones and internet
in the cordon… we’re not having any of that tiresome nuance going on here. This
is not how you control panic. No no it is not.